A disHarmonious sound has arisen from Logitech's customers

If you own a Logitech Harmony Link and registered it then you already know, but for those who did not receive the email you should know your device will become unusable in March. According to the information Ars Technica acquired, Logitech have decided not to renew a so called "technology certificate license" which will mean the Link will no longer work. It is not clear what this certificate is nor why the lack of it will brick the Link but that is what will happen. Apparently if you have a Harmony Link which is still under warranty you can get a free upgrade to a Harmony Hub; if your Link is out of warranty then you can get a 35% discount. Why exactly one would want to purchase another one of these devices which can be remotely destroyed is an interesting question, especially as there was no monthly contract or service agreement suggesting this was a possibility when customers originally purchased their device.

"Customers received an e-mail explaining that Logitech will "discontinue service and support" for the Harmony Link as of March 16, 2018, adding that Harmony Link devices "will no longer function after this date."

My logitech M325 mouse has doubleclick disease and it's needing some extra take the battery out and turn the mouse on without the battery installed. And clicking those moues buttons some(Lots of times) to drain down/discharge the static charge in those tiny mouse capacitors.

But this is just planned Brickolescence by Logitech.

This is more a Lugi-Tech, in Logitech's case, right in their customers faces.

I suspect this 'decision' is probably a front for a technical goof on Logitech's part while designing the device. They've probably hardcoded a certificate authority in the things that's either compromised or set to expire in the near future.

Consider this, recently the makers of the Canary security cam, originally charged a ton of money for it, with the marketing (and art on the box) of having no monthly fees, and having a fully featured device without having to pay each month.
Canary then went and moved everything except the live view to behind a pay wall. They also disabled night mode (a function that doesn't require any extra work from their server) and require a payment plan to enable it again.

Anyway the harmony link will join the ranks of the revolv and many other cloud reliant devices that had an unnecessary reliance on a remote server.

In the vast majority of cases, IOT simply means that they take a device that you would normally access via the LAN IP to get the full set of functions, and remove that frontend, and simply relocate it to a command and control server, all while taking steps to prevent local access.

This all also allows for more direct control over planned obsolescence, instead of doing something like pulling an Acer and selling a $100 monitor where they use an 85C rated Capxon branded capacitor mounted on its side right above the heatsink for the PSU which causes it to fail shortly after the warranty ends, but sometimes before, a device maker can now just make the device cloud reliant and simply kill the server or block the EOL devices from connecting when when they want to push people into spending more money.

Cloud reliance is also the worst position to be in as a consumer because it allows the company to hold your initial purchase ransom , thus some users will be more likely to pay for added services that they normally wouldn't purchase.